Dear Editor:
I attended the public forum hosted by Centre Wellington Mayor Shawn Watters on Oct. 6. Many topics were discussed in detail. It appears there will be paid parking for tourists coming to Elora but the town’s people will park for free, which is good, as tourism will be charged which helps to pay for services.
One of the big points of contention was the amount of growth that is happening in Centre Wellington. From what I understand, if Centre Wellington refused to expand, Doug Ford then sends in a crew to tell Centre Wellington where they will expand, and that includes land and properties that have already been protected by our current councillors.
So in simple terms, agricultural land could simply be confiscated, developed and taken away with no input from our local people, no input from our elected officials. Already developers are appealing decisions that our council made to protect land here in Centre Wellington.
The moral of this whole story is if we don’t expand and try to let council and county council pick the areas of expansion then, because we didn’t comply, the province (Doug Ford) swoops in and makes all of the decisions where homes will be built and with the developers that they pick.
I’m thinking none of us here want that! Elora and Fergus are at least better off picking the areas of expansion than having the areas dictated by the province.
So it’s important our council remains as in control of the areas for development as they can.
Brenda Chamberlain,
Elora